Miami Dice: Dice Forge 

I like that these gentlemen rarely talk over each other, despite often having differing opinions. Quality stuff.

I demo'd this twice at GenCon and bought it recently. There is a lot more strategy than the Zee realizes, as Sam reiterates. You're not just rolling for resources, you're building and changing your strategy every time around the table to react as other player strategies emerge. Dice Forge has solid engine building and limited resource management mechanics (only a handful of large victory point cards let alone limited dice faces) to work with. On top of that, you get the fun of dice rolling every turn to mix it up AND another layer of strategic complexity as you forge your dice toward your play style (calculating rolling odds that fit your goals etc). For example, Tom having 3 3x faces. Give one dice all 3 so you have a 50% chance of 3x and your other dice the big money faces. As long as you all keep the pace up and not get mired in decision making, it's a blast. I wish more 'heavy' games could be lightened up so nicely. It's like heavy euro gaming and Vegas had a baby and if you give it a chance I think you'll agree the combination has merit.

Tom this is my favorite backdrop, perhaps a very subtle Dice Tower decal on the glass but do more stuff with this beautiful natural back light. Seriously the videos look so professional

PRO TIP! Instead of using your fingers to take the faces off, you use the new face to pry it off.

Love the new set and the new production is amazing! Thank you for all your great reviews!

This is a really good video, I would love to see more in depth reviews from you guys in this format, where all three of you sit around and discuss one game for a whole video. Enjoyed it a lot and very informative.

From the rulebook: "Remove a die face that you want to replace, using the new die face as a lever." "This game suffers from not having players aids". - Sam. The game comes with a sheet called Hero Aid, I've found that to be quite useful.

I bought this game to play with my daughter, 9, and we learned it pretty well in one game. It's really not that difficult to pick up, even for a child. As for switching out the die faces, you don't need a tool. Hold the die in your off hand with thumb over the face you're removing so it doesn't go flying. Use the corner of the new die face as a lever to remove the first die face. (This tidbit is actually in the instructions.) No skinny fingers or long nails needed. One more thing: if you find you have way more gold in end game than you can use but are hurting for shards, you didn't invest enough of it in shard and glory die faces in mid game.

Set looks amazing today!

My gaming group loves this game. A couple things... It says in the instructions to use the new dye side to pop the old side out. That worked fine for my group. Also, I could have sworn that you only roll one dye when someone bumps you off of a spot. If you are rolling two dice everytime someone bumps you off a spot, that might be why you felt you had too many resources to sale. The one thing my group did wrong was only buying one dye per turn rather than two or more in that spot. Maybe that's why the game felt more difficult to us because we had less resources to spend.

Don't need nails at all just use the die face give it a little twist and keep a finger on top of your dice to keep from flinging off. Works really well actually. You can change the die face in no time like that

I like Dice Forge and own it. It’s a great gateway game because it’s easy to learn and people love to be able to roll even not on their turn. And getting a sick combo is very rewarding. I agree with Zee however on the replay ability. After a couple of times I didn’t feel the urge to play it again. I picked up the expansion though, so we’ll see how it goes once I have a chance to try it.

Great review guys.

The Box art reminds me of The Dark Crystal

Use the corner of the dice face you've purchased to pop the old one out with your other thumb on it and they won't fly across the room and it goes much faster.

I was talking to a friend about this game just yesterday and he said it was a terrific game, 100% happy he'd bought it and also that I had (I haven't played it yet). I'm hoping I like it when I finally get it to the table. I was surprised Sam liked it as much as he did, it was nice to hear him sounding positive lol.

Having played the game over 100 times on BGA now I'll say the 6-gold die face *is* really powerful and a no-brainer to take first round if it's available.

Love this new set up.

Zee's comments in this video is incredibly valuable.

would like to see a legacy game from this one. You start with the dice you create the last game session :D

For my casual gaming group, this was a HUGE hit. A lot of fun.

I really love the idea and theme behind this, but my concerns are similar to Zee's. Mitigating dice is always a little iffy, but works if done well. Still, I'd love to give this a shot. Also, I love the box cover!

This is a game that has a great dice mechanism that will be great with an expansion and perhaps some additional rules. As it is, it's still a great game and very fun!

Zee's statement of "Desert for Gamers" is perfect. While I don't think the game is a hardcore competitive match, I think it's light enough to teach to new gamers relatively quickly and also heavy enough for a more "seasoned" gamer to enjoy as a nice time to wind up towards a more intense night of gaming (or maybe a fun game to wind down and relax, haha). Can't wait to add it to my collection :D (also wow I love the trees in the background with the natural lighting. Great place to film this review!!)

I love how their opinions of games aren't always the same, but their critiques are all valid at the same time.

Own it, Love it!

Lol. Tom Vassel and "The trouble with Triples". Made me laugh with that reference.

I agree that the components are beautiful, the insert is one of the best I've seen. I do like the mechanics, but where the game falls way short for me is player interaction. There's almost none. It feels more like just a race to get points but we can't do anything about anyone else. I was pretty excited to try this game but ultimately I was disappointed.

Wow Stellar production quality on this vid, great job guys As for the game, I think I could fit it in my collection since it's akin to Splendor and Century, but I see where Zee is coming from as far as replay ability and variance. Not a must-get but I'll add to my wishlist for sure

pretty sure you use the other die face as the tool. It is integrated. :)

So for the dice they show using corner of newly purchased tile to pop out tile you are replacing

Tom, if you think about it, dice city is actually a dice crafting game. You don't physically craft dice, but every face is represented by a spot on your board

I love this game. My friends love this game. It's AMAZING and soooo ready for expansions!

Tom -- LEGO Lava Dragon is a die-builder too. Just FYI.

It's funny when I hear people complain about having too much gold...you can buy faces with your gold that remove faces of gold for faces with sun/moon shards and therefore stop rolling so much gold.

Hmmmm, I wonder how well the dice will hold up with constant use. I'd be concerned about wear and tear on them. Looks really cool though.

The tiles themselves are what I used to pop the faces off. No need for a "tool" also this is a strange thing to complain about but I think the game plays too fast...it's like a "good problem" to have lol

Use the spare dice faces to pop off the dice faces, no nails needed. Just a tip for Sam.

I love the mechanics of building your dice to your own taste. This game does lack depth tho. They need to implement the dice building mechanic into some other games.

I agree with Zee and +Justin Emlay in the comments 100%. I had a chance top play this last night and I was blown away by the production but totally underwhelmed by the actual game.The game takes as long to teach as it does to play. The strategy is paper thin. There is almost no hand/deck/dice manipulation like other engine building games. (you get what your roll plus maybe a reroll once or twice per game) The theme is poorly pasted on(I honestly didn't know how or why we were doing any of it). I also felt like there was a distinct disadvantage to seat order on the first turn because there is such a limitation to the available resources, which is a really odd complaint if you think about it. The 4th person to go will probably give an earlier player a reroll (a huge bonus to someone that already had more options? really?!) or have some of the best (low cost) die faces already purchased before they can go (single faces like 6 gold or player choice or 3vp). Overall, I think Mystic Vale is the same type of engine building game but with greater depth, strategy, and theme.

Mechanics seem very similar to Seasons

Did he just say Tom's Vasel in the end?

1:44 PLEASE someone explain how to get THE CARDS to this step :D I've looked through a bunch of tutorials and everyone just says, "Set up the board." I've taken this beautiful game off the shelf 3 times at gaming events, only to give up and play something I already know because I can't, for the life of me, figure out this step quick enough :D

There is a lot of luck involved but I still think a superior player will win more than others.

For those of us who are experienced board gamers what is a zurt for gamers?

We ended up using a pocket nail file to pop pieces.

A lot of criticism for a beautiful, lite, well made game. And no, it's not that hard of a game. I taught my wife how to play in all of five minutes. The rest comes after playing the game one time for twenty minutes.

What is the best? Dice Forge or Rattlebones?!

why cant they just have dice with different symbols and you have a player board where you can adjust what the symbols represent?

We are starting to play this game as the end of night closer. Something we can decompress with after a heavy euro game. (We also use Love Letter for this)

Very even-handed review. Didn't like it much at all, and for all the reasons you guys listed. Interesting that we had different conclusions though. Definitely prefer Rattlebones to this.

I love the concept of the game, but I felt like I saw everything in four plays. Imagine if they made a Dice Force adventure like Clank. Now that would be amazing.

loved this game. Played at my colleagues house...

Seems like machi koro meets splendor

You only get ONE buy action. You can buy an actin extra for 2 sun stones

The perfect way I would describe the place this game holds in our group is this: we frequently are waiting for our fifth person - this is a game we can play quick with only 3 or 4 players while we are waiting for our other person to show up.

It took me 5 minutes to teach this to my kids

At an abstract level the game looks to basically be dominion but every time you buy a new new resource card (e.g., die piece/gold card) you get to discard one. It just looks like just another build your engine and eventually turn your engine into points game, am I wrong?

Desert for gamers. That's how I felt towards the end of the review. It might be fun to throw dice for a while, but i would like something more meatier 😀

I think there are some better ways to do those dice so they would feel more like normal dice and still hold up nicely.

The main strategy is just get VP sides.

Really, it says on the front page how to get the faces off...

I think this game could definitely use an expansion to add more heft for gamers

It's such a gorgeous game, I'm trying to get hyped. But I feel like your agency is...negligible.

I'm with Zee on this game. I have played 5 games of Dice Forge and won them all. I don't think I will play it anymore.

I love this game for what it is. It's a lot of fun. I wish it had more variety of cards and I think it's too short. We usually play 12 rounds

I taught my seven and nine year old to teach this game. I don't think it is hard to teach.

The art makes me think of Krossmasters

I'm under the impression that the game is really fiddly.. Does the game feel steamlined when you sit down and play it?

Shouldn't take any time at all to change the sides. You are doing something wrong if it is slowing down the progress of the game.

Hi guys, thanks for the video! Do you think this could be a good title for a 10 year old….?

To change the faces of the dice, use the new face to unhinge the face you wish to replace...you don't need a tool or nails

They do give you a tool, it's the other faces. When you buy a new face use the corner of it to pop off the old face. Also Tom the plural of Lego is Lego bricks not Legos

we love Dice Forge, so fun. We like it because we are active the whole game, the choices are fun. Zee is right, and yet...and yet. so fun.

Agree with Zee. Pretty. Fun. Shallow and without very meaningful decisions / strategies.

Zee "Rosy Cheeks" Garcia

Honestly feels like Catan, but you change your dice instead of worker placement

I wear a hat because I'm cool.

I think there's multiple strategies. I disagree with zee

Use the new face to pop out the old one!!!! The rules even go so far as to suggest it!!!!!!!

I think Zee got it right with too complicated for a simple game. Seasons has way more strategy and takes less explanation for the symbols.

i knew i should have checked out the dice tower review of this game before getting it what was i thinking

Fiddly as f@#$

I love this game. Can't understand why you agonize so long about this trivial dice building problems. Maybe you should use a small stick as a tool? The game mechanics work perfectly and there are multiple strategies to win!

The rulebook says you're supposed to use the corner of the new die face to pop off the old die face. Fingernails need not apply.

this has more going for it than Azul. You love that, but not this. Go figure

I’ll be honest I played a lot of games that are resource base but this one just blows its to boring there is actually no fun to be had here only cool thing is making a your dice but when the novelty of that wears off you got a pice of shit game

Makes it sound like yall have no idea what the difference between Graphic Design and THEME is... It doesn't NEED a theme to be colorful or look the way it does It would just be an "abstract game" with beautiful art Art =/= Theme

My god, Sam is disguising. The first thing he did in this video is burp.

That art style is disgusting to me, I had to say it

One of the worst manual in a game ever Kinda like the game itself though